E-Commerce

What is E-commerce?

E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. In practice, this term and a newer term, e-business, are often used interchangeably. For online retail selling, the term e-tailing is sometimes used.

Elements Of E-commerce

• A product
• A place to sell the product - in e-commerce, a Web site displays the products in some way and acts as the place
• A way to get people to come to your Web site
• A way to accept orders - normally an on-line form of some sort
• A way to accept money - normally a merchant account handling credit card payments. This piece requires a secure ordering page and a connection to a bank. Or you may use more traditional billing techniques either online or through the mail.
• A fulfillment facility to ship products to customers (often outsource-able). In the case of software and information, however, fulfillment can occur over the Web through a file download mechanism.
• A way to accept returns
• A way to handle warranty claims if necessary
• A way to provide customer service (often through email, on-line forms, on-line knowledge bases and FAQs, et cetera)